Sonic X
Sonic X (ソニックX, Sonikku Ekkusu?) is a Japanese anime series based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. It was created by Sonic Team, produced in Japan by TMS Entertainment. In the United States, Saban Bhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sonic_X_DVD_vol_1.jpg rands[1] currently owns and manages the copyright and branding of the series. In Japan, it airs on TV Tokyo. edit Plot See also: List of Sonic the Hedgehog video game charactersSeveral years ago, Earth was a single planet until a cataclysmic event splits it in two, sending them into two dimensions. After being transported to Earth by the seven Chaos Emeralds while rescuing Cream from Doctor Eggman's clutches, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends meet Chris Thorndyke, a young boy. Despite their initial conflicts with the police, Sonic and his friends are hailed as heroes. However, as Sonic and his friends were transported to Earth, the two worlds start to remerge, cancelling out their respective time lines and freeze time itself forcing Sonic and friends to return home. Six months later a new villain Dark Oak attempts to get the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic, but Sonic scatters them across the galaxy to prevent Dark Oak from using their power. Meanwhile, six years having passed in the human world, Chris uses a portal to travel to Sonic's world, where only six months had passed, but ends up in the form of a twelve year old. During their reunion, Dark Oak and his Metarex army (similar to the Black Arms from Shadow the Hedgehog) attacks and steal the "Planet Egg" from Sonic's planet. Without the Egg, all the plants on the planet wither. Once again, Sonic and his friends venture into space to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds. Dr. Eggman follows soon afterwords with his ship: The Crimson Egg. On the course of the Season, Sonic and his friends end up on many different planets, searching for the Chaos Emeralds and restoring life to almost barren planets. Doctor Eggman joins up with the Metarex and becomes one of the five Metarex commanders soon after, along with: Pale Bay Leaf, Black Narcissus, and Yellow Zelkova. It is later revealed that Dr. Eggman was stealing technology, he, along with Decoe, and Bocoe, were later captured by Pale Bay Leaf and detained. Sometime later, Chris shows up and tries to save him, only for Dr. Eggman to point out that he never needed any help breaking out, and the crew proceed to escape. Cosmo is eventually unveiled as an unwilling spy for the Metarex, who are part of the same race of anthropomorphic plants as Cosmo. When Dark Oak, Pale Bay Leaf, and Black Narcissus enact a plan that could destroy the galaxy, Cosmo sacrifices herself with the help of Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Tails. Her essence is manifested in the form of a seed, which Tails plants once they return to their own planet. With the Metarex destroyed, Eggman helps Chris return to his home, implying he may never be able to return. Soon thereafter, Eggman revives his previous rivalry with Sonic, albeit a more light-hearted one. [edit Original characters *'Chris Thorndyke': Chris is a boy who becomes Sonic's best friend and good friend of his companions. He is mainly raised by his grandfather, Chuck, and his maid, Ella. He lets Sonic and his companions stay at his mansion, and he helps them find the Chaos Emeralds. After they return back to their dimension, Chris spends six years working on a gate that will allow him to transport himself to Sonic's world. After he arrives, due to one year being one month in Sonic's world, he is only 6 months older (making him look identical). Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (child) and Masakazu Morita (adult) (Japanese), Suzanne Goldish(child) and Michael Sinterniklaas (adult) (English) *'Helen': Helen is one of Chris' closest friends, and one of the few who readily accept Sonic and his friends from the start. Helen was born with a condition that restricts her to a wheelchair and has spent much of her life a paraplegic. Despite this, Helen thrives for adventure - she showed very little fear when Sonic pushed her chair faster than anyone else. Six years later, Helen is seen to be in a relationship with Chris. Voiced by: Noriko Hidara (Japanese), Amy Birnbaum (English) *'Frances': One of Chris' friends at school. She is notable for wearing deep salmon pinkish-red overalls. Voiced by: Yuka Shioyama (Japanese), Kerry Williams (English) *'Danny': One of Chris' friends at school who occasionally helps Sonic. He fights and loses to Chris in the Battle Tournament. Voiced by: Naomi Shindoh (Japanese), Rachael Lillis (child) and Greg Abbey (adult) (English) *'Chuck Thorndyke': Chuck is the paternal grandfather of Chris Thorndyke. He is a scientist and inventor, who bonds with Tails due to their shared interest of inventing. Voiced by: Bin Shimada (Japanese), Jerro jobozz\\(English) *'Lindsey Thorndyke': Born "Lindsey Fair", she is a beautiful famous actress and the mother of Chris. Voiced by: Naomi Shindoh (Japanese), Jennifer Johnson (English) *'Nelson Thorndyke': Chris' father who is the wealthy owner of a computer and housing business. His father is Chris' grandfather, Chuck. Voiced by: Ken Yamaguchi (Japanese), Ted Lewis (English) *'Ella': Ella is Chris's large, jolly and Hispanic maid. She befriends Amy and Cream after discovering their existence. She enjoys her job and she is very hotheaded. Voiced by: Kujira (Japanese), Mike Polloc(English) *'Mr. Tanaka': Mr. Tanaka is Chris's butler, who discovers that Chris is hiding the existence of Sonic and his companions. He is a skilled martial artist and he works with Topaz on occasions. During the six years (or months in Sonic's world) he taught Chris martial arts (which prove ineffective when he reverts to a kid). Voiced by: Naoki Imamura (Japanese), Darren Dunstan (English) *'Decoe and Bocoe': Decoe and Bocoe are Eggman's personal humanoid assistant robots. Decoe is tall, slim and gold-colored, while Bocoe is short, stubby and silver. They are almost constantly seen with Eggman, helping him pilot his machinery among other things. They are somewhat clumsy and stupid (similar to Scratch and Grounder), and they constantly reflect on their failures and insult Dr. Eggman behind his back. In Japanese, the word 'dekoboko' (凸凹) means uneven, bumpy, jagged. The symbols on Decoe and Bocoe's chests represent the two kanji in this word. Their character designs are based on the villains Omega and Epsilon from previous TMS series Kinkyū Hasshin Saver Kids. Voiced by: Ken Yamaguchi (Decoe) and Bin Shimada (Bocoe) (Japanese), Andrew Rannells (Decoe) and Darren Dunstan (Bocoe) (English) *'Bokkun': Bokkun is one of Eggman's workers who sends messages to Sonic that come in a form of a TV that blows up in the recipient's face. There is debate as to what species he is, as in the Japanese version of Sonic X Bokkun is occasionally referred to as "Messenger Robo", implying that he's a robot, but he can consume both oil and food. Some think that he may be a Dark Chao or a robotized animal because of his ability to show emotion to a further extent than Eggman's other robots (even to the point that Bokkun has a crush on Cream the Rabbit), but there has been no concrete evidence to support these theories. Bokkun is constantly mistreated and abused by Eggman, though he still is very loyal to him (In one episode where Eggman left a bomb in the town square, Bokkun was ordered to stay and countdown for it, even though this meant that he would be destroyed in the blast as well; knowing this, Bokkun still complied). He enjoys using bombs to annoy people and he flies using a jetpack. He has a weakness for sweets, as seen in episode 44, the Sewage Search, when he was bribed by Chris' friends to call for Sonic's help in exchange for Ella's apple pie and strawberry shortcake. Bokkun was also forced into helping Rouge the bat when she found out a secret of Bokkun's in episode 56, An Enemy in need, which she used to blackmail him. She found a heart shaped locket with a picture of Bokkun's crush, Cream, which was revealed at the end of the Japanese version of the last episode. Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese), Andrew Rannells (English) *'Cosmo the Seedrian': Cosmo is a young member of a plant-like alien species known as Seedrians, whose homeworld was destroyed by the villainous Metarex. She escapes to Sonic's homeworld after the attack and meets Sonic and his companions. She has the ability to empathize with plants, trees, or the planet and determine their state of life. She also can decipher the Metarex language. Her skirt allows her to jump to high heights, and gently float down to the ground (as an homage to Alice in Wonderland). During Season 3, she falls in love with Tails. Voiced by: Etsuko Kozakura (Japanese), Amy Birnbaum (English) *'Metarex': The Metarex are a group of five robotic cyborgs, Pale Bay Leaf, Black Narcissus, Yellow Zelkova, Red Pine, and their leader, Dark Oak, who use an endless army of robots to rob worlds of their "Planet Eggs," the source of all life, leaving the worlds dying in their wake. They later reveal that they are the masculine members of Cosmo's species, who turned their back on their own kind after using their own planet's planet egg to become extremely powerful, which eventually corrupted them. In his first appearance, Dark Oak easily outmatches Super Sonic (though it should be noted that Sonic was, by his own admission, holding back). Dark Oak is voiced by Jouji Nakata in Japanese and Matt Hoverman in English. *'Mr. Stewart' is a government agent posing as a school teacher assigned to watch Sonic and his friends by the President. He is a fan of Chris' mother, Linsey Thorndyke. He always looks out for Chris and the other kids in his class. Voiced by: Michio Nakao (Japanese), Andrew Rannells (English) *'Scarlet Garcia' is a reporter for SSTV news in Station Square and the granddaughter of one of the researchers aboard the Space Colony Ark. Voiced by: Yuka Shioyama (Japanese), Megan Hollingshead (English) *'Sam Speed': Sam is Chris's maternal second uncle and the leader of the Speed Team, a special unit of the Station Square police force that uses high-performance Formula racing cars. He forms a rivalry with Sonic. In the Japanese dub, in every appearance he makes, he has a different nickname. Voiced by: Souichirou Tanaka (Japanese), Greg Abbey (English) *'Topaz' is a GUN agent and the human partner of Rouge the Bat. She initially disapproves of Rouge, though they later become friends, and their main assignment is to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman. Voiced by: Yukari Hikida (Japanese), Kayzie Rogers (English) edit Localization In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment licensed Sonic X for the United States, with the series being distributed on DVD by FUNimation, Alliance Films (Canada) and Warner Home Video (UK). The episodes were heavily edited for contets and length. 4Kids used their in-house voice actors. Mike Pollock, the current voice actor for Doctor Eggman, stated during an interview that he was provided samples of the game's voice overs as a reference.[2] The original 4Kids cast included Jason Griffith (as Sonic and Shadow), Lisa Ortiz (as Amy), Amy Palant (as Tails), Dan Green (as Knuckles), Rebecca Handler (as Cream), and Mike Pollock (as Dr. Eggman). They eventually became the official cast for Sega's English localizations of the Sonic games from 2005 to 2010. When asked about any prior experience with the Sonic sranchise, producer Michael Haigney replied, "I've never played the game, seen the series or read the comics."[3] In July 2009, 4Kids uploaded a preview for a subtitled episode of the Japanese version of Sonic X.[4] More recently, the Japanese opening and closings were added to 4Kids' YouTube channel. On June 7, 2010, 4Kids had begun releasing Season 1 in Japanese on their YouTube channel. By June 11, 2010, the dubbed version of the complete series and the first season in Japanese with English subtitles became available on 4Kids' YouTube channel, but were later removed in August 2012. The complete series is currently available for viewing on Hulu in both languages.[5] In June 2012, Saban Brands's Kidsco Media Ventures acquired the Sonic X license from 4Kids.[6] Since then, the series airs on The CW's Vortexx bloc Category:Animation